UP (Ultimate Performance) Fly Rods, Wave Fly Rods, Innovative Custom Fly Fishing Instruments

Ultimate Performance (UP)
Fly Rods

Click on the picture above to watch a short video

FOR SALE
GREAT NYMPHING RODS
9 Foot 6 Inch, REC Light Duty Single-Foot Snake Guides, 3 Weight with a 10 Inch Tennessee Sensor Graphite Handle, Down-Locking Graphite Insert Reel Seat, and Fuji Folding Hook-keeper, Right or Left Handed, Under $400⁰⁰

Also, Special Rod Sale - Only One Available

The picture above was copied out of a catalog. It exemplifies how bad some production rods really cast. If you count them, there are ten guides on the rod in the picture. To my way of thinking, if the rod was six feet long that would be okay. I am quite certain that this rod is longer than that - probably nine feet. If your nine foot rod, medium to light weight rod has fewer than fifteen guides on it (including the tiptop guide) you are experiencing the same problem. Every cast you are being cheated. You working too hard to get the distance you are getting. Even when fighting a fish, a rod made with fewer guides, is not loading properly and will break easier. No wonder you and so many other fly fishers are so tired after a days fishing. Your poorly spaced guides are dragging you down.

Line Belly is caused by too large a distance between any two consecutive guides. This allows "sag" which creates "drag". When "reach casting" (flipping out line as the fly travels away from the angler), line belly can kill the reach at every attempt if the distance between the tiptop guide and the first guide down is too far. As you try to thrust the line out the tip of the rod, a loop is formed between the tiptop and the first guide. This kills the reach and must be pulled out before attempting another reach cast. This ends up being a case of working real hard at getting nowhere. Line belly can only be solved by putting more guides on the rod. This lessens the distance between consecutive guides and will increase your casting distance with every cast.

How do you know when you have enough guides on your rod? You can tell by using the rod. When you are shooting your line during a double or single haul and the line leaving the rod feels as if a silk thread is being drug through your rod guides - you need to add just one more. At the end of every cast, your fly line tugs at your line hand and your line wants to shoot whether you do or not - you need to add just one more. If you are dead-drift nymphing across the current and you do a shooting mend and the mend ends a half as much bigger than what you intended - you need to add just one more. In other words, if you don't think you could make the rod any better - you need to add just one more guide. Believe it or not, the addition of just one more guide can make a very noticeable difference in your rods performance in every task of a day's fishing.

Is it possible to have too many guides on a rod? Yes, if the rod builder uses guides that are too heavy, the guides will deaden the rod. However, the rod will still, most likely, out perform your standard production rod. Using light guides, single wrappings, and placing a guide where a wrap has to be anyway will not hamper the blanks performance at all. There are several makers of light efficient guides on the market today. Remember this about fly rod guides - because a fly rod's guides are on the under-side of the rod, the guides do not have to be exceptionally strong but must be well attached. If you are using several light guides it will more than equals the strength of having a few heavy guides.

These No Sag - No Drag Rods are most sought after by nymph fishers because the movement of the line in and out of the rod is so efficient. However, these rods work exceptionally well for all types of fly fishing. The increased number of guides on these rods will increase the life of a fly line two to three times. Cracked and broken lines often go unnoticed until they reach the point of un-floatable sinking disasters. Some anglers often save these worn out has-beens to use for streamer and wet fly fishing.

Handles are the interface between the angler and the fly. The more sensitive this connection, the more feedback that is given to the anger and the better he/she understand what is happening to the fly. Handles made of hardwoods - like oak, walnut, and maple - were the first materials used in making handles. When the hardwoods were replaced by cork, something was lost. That something was sensitivity. Sensitivity has been thoroughly exploited by the rod builders of rubber-worm and spinner fishing rods. In these two types of fishing, the more sensitive handle gives more feedback to the fisherman which translates into more control of the lure and more strikes realized. This ultimately means more fish caught. This is also true in flyfishing. From the beginning of the back cast to the fish in the net, the more sensitivity handle tells the fly fisherman more about what is happening on the other end of the line. In our search for the ultimate handle, we settled on a graphite handle designed by Bob McCamey. This handle is lighter than cork, unbreakable, and acts as a resonator that amplifies the vibrations transmitted up the rod. It is always warm to the touch and never tarnishes or stains. I believe that there is only one handle that could be more sensitive than this. It would be a handle that is made as part of the blank. Have you ever considered catching minnows with midges? It is possible with these handles.

Reel Seats, cheap ones are like cheap whiskey - they both give you a headache. Reel seats, in the past have been the heaviest and quickest to ware out addition to any rod. I abhor wood inserts no matter what their quality. If you leave them in the water long enough they all start to swell, so I favor the metal and graphite reel seats the most and on some of my personal rods, I have no reel seats at all.
Guides - Sorry we do not offer snake guides on our rods. Why? Lot of reasons. They require two thread wrappings. They are cheap. They are not durable. They hamper the bend of the rod. They decrease casting distance. They destroy your line finish. They are a guide that the line can be touching the same guide at two points at the same time, thus doubling the friction. They create more friction than other guides because they are a helix style. And that is just the beginning.

So what do you get when you purchase an expensive mass production rod? Well let's really look at it critically. You get a blank that has about thirty dollars worth of graphite or fiberglass in it. You get a cork handle that cost the manufacture around ten dollars, a reel seat that is in the neighborhood of twenty dollars and a set of guides (including the hook keeper) that cost less than five dollars. It probably cost the manufacture less than ten dollars to get the rod put together. So, if you paid six hundred dollars for the rod, what was the other five hundred twenty-five dollars for? Well over half of it was advertisement for sure. But notice that the cheapest component of the rod was the cost of the guides. The major rod manufactures have been convincing the less experienced fly fishers for years that the blank is the most important component of the rod. That's BULL-HOCKEY. Blanks are a matter of personal choice and purpose. You don't use a ten foot two weight to catch shark and a nine foot twelve weight to catch sunfish. Some fly fishermen like noodles for one fish, sticks for other fish, and hammers for others. Regardless of the length, line weight, or action of a rod, the most important component of that rod is the guides. Let's face it, blanks just bend one way then the other, some faster and some slower than others. So what makes a great rod? Great guides, good guide placement, bigger guide openings, guides that carry the line away from the blank, and guide linings made of extremely hard material that reduces friction. How do you know if you are casting a great rod ? When you shoot the line, you don't feel the line leave the rod, even if it is an old cracked line. We offer different grades of guides on our rods to fit your pocket book. T1 Fuji guides are the best in the business for medium to large weight rods. Their titanium frames are 60% lighter than stainless steel and twice as strong. Their new concept gold cermet rings are made thinner, lighter, harder, and stronger than anything other guide ring. Our second choice for guides are REC Heavy Duty Single Foot Wire guides, also for medium to heavy weight rods. The third choice of guides are REC Light Duty Single Foot Wire guides for light line weight rods. And our last choice for light weight rods are Hopkins & Holloway Single Foot Wire guides.

Blanks - We have several blanks sources to choose from. If you want a specific blank we can probably provide it. As we said before, "Blanks are a matter of personal choice and purpose." If you don't know what you want in a blank, we will offer some suggestions. We have our own personal preference of blank manufactures - we like Dorber blanks. Why? Because they can do what the other blank manufactures can't. Blank manufactures buy their materials from just about the same suppliers. They all use about the same type of machinery to produce basically the same blank. However I think that Dorber is a step ahead of other blank builders and here are some examples of why. How about a ten foot one weight? Or how about their new ultra-weave graphite blanks that are the lightest, best casting, almost unbreakable, double backbone blanks ever made. There D-Reach blanks are real parking lot and grass casters. What other blank builder offers those examples?

Right, Left, and Neither-Handed Rods - Production rods are made Neither-Handed, they are neither right-handed nor left-handed. At Willow Ford we make all three styles. What makes a rod right-handed or left-handed? The position of the last two or three butt guides on the rod. We came upon the realization of right-handed and left-handed rod quite by accident. One day when testing the guide placements on an unfinished rod, I went outside to test its casting abilities. I had cast the rod several times, when I noticed that the last two butt guides had moved toward my line hand. I took the rod in my shop and cut off all of the guides and wrapped them back on the rod using a different guide placement setup. Again I cast the rod several times and noticed again that the last two butt guides had repositioned themselves. Upon realizing that the guides were trying to tell me something, I continued to experiment with exactly how far the guides could or should be moved toward the line hand. I found that right and left handed rods cast further and the fly line last longer because of the reduction in friction due to the offset butt guides.

Custom Rods - To get a price one of our Innovative Custom Fly Fishing Instruments you need to call us at (870) 405-3912 or email us at foxstatler@willowford.net . We will need to get some information on exactly what you want.